The present disclosure relates to a method and an arrangement for producing a relative displacement of specific elements included in artillery missiles, this relative displacement being intended to be activated as soon as the missile has left the barrel from which it has been fired.
The disclosure is in the first instance intended to be used in those artillery missiles which are fired without rotation or at a low inherent rotation about their longitudinal axis (e.g., by use of a so-called “skidding drive band”), and which, for stabilizing them in the continued trajectory towards the target, are assumed to be provided with stabilizing fins which are arranged at the rear end and are initially retracted until the missile has completely exited the launch arrangement from which it has been fired, and then are deployed once it has left the launch arrangement. To guide the missiles in their trajectories in pitch and yaw towards their intended targets, they can also be provided with guide members arranged for this purpose preferably at their front end and deployable more or less simultaneously.
Airborne missiles can be rotation-stabilized in their trajectory or stabilized in another way, for example by means of fins. Rotation-stabilized missiles have steady trajectories and they can be made mechanically simple since the launch arrangement as a rule is responsible for ensuring that the missile acquires the necessary initial rotation. However, the high rotational velocity has at least hitherto made it impossible to provide this type of missile with a well-functioning guidance system. When work is undertaken today to develop effective guidable missiles, one has therefore concentrated efforts on missiles which do not rotate at all, or rotate only slowly, about their own longitudinal axis and which are aerodynamically stabilized by means of fins arranged in their rear part.
In addition to stabilizing the missile flight, the stabilizing fins, in a fin-stabilized non-rotating missile, or in a missile rotating only slowly, can additionally, if they are arranged for this purpose, give rise to an active lifting force which acts on the missile and can be used to increase its range of fire.
A current trend in the development of artillery technology is towards new long-range artillery missiles guided in their final phase, and interest has increased in different types of fin-stabilized shells intended for firing in conventional guns and howitzers. To make it possible to launch fin-stabilized shells with a low inherent rotation directly from grooved barrels, the shells need to be provided with a drive band (conventionally known as a “skidding drive band”) as their only direct contact with the grooving of the barrel. The same gun or howitzer can thus be used, without special intermediate measures, to successively fire essentially non-rotating shells provided with drive bands and with stabilizing fins, which can be deployed in trajectory, and entirely conventional rotation-stabilized shells.
In controlling the trajectory of fin-stabilized missiles such as shells, rockets and projectiles, it is necessary to know and be able to control the roll position of the missile. This is necessary in order to be able to control the missile in pitch and yaw. This control is achieved preferably with special control elements, for example in the form of movable nose fins, so-called canard fins, or jet nozzles. The roll control moment which such control members in the front part of the missile give rise to can however in many cases be counteracted or completely eliminated by the guide fins in the rear part of the missile, unless special measures are taken. This is due to the fact that the vortices caused by the control moment from the rudder or other control activity impact the fins and this in turn gives rise to a counteracting moment.